Ulrich Schnaft

Ulrich Schnaft (3 October 1923 – 2013) was a German Waffen-SS member and World War II veteran, who immigrated to Israel in 1949 by posing as a Jew, served in the Israeli Army, and was later convicted of spying for Egypt.

Early life and World War II service Ulrich Schnaft was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, Prussia, Germany, in 1923, the son of a single mother. His mother placed him in an orphanage, and he was later adopted by a German family. He attended a vocational school and was trained as a mechanical technician, graduating in 1941, during World War II. He then enlisted in the German Army and joined the Waffen-SS. He was deployed to the Eastern front. He was wounded and taken to a hospital in Germany. After recuperating, he was sent to Yugoslavia and posted to a unit engaged in anti-partisan warfare there. He was subsequently deployed to northern Italy in 1944.

Espionage Following his discharge, Schnaft moved to Ashkelon, where he rented an apartment and worked a series of odd jobs, hoping to eventually save up enough money to emigrate to another country and establish a new life. During this period, he began having an affair with the wife of his landlord, a German immigrant to Israel, a woman who was about 20 years his senior. After her husband discovered the affair, he evicted him, and his wife left him to remain with Schnaft. The couple then moved to Haifa and lived together in a small apartment.

At the same time, West Germany was experiencing reconstruction and rapid economic growth in a period known as the "economic miracle". Hearing of this, the couple eventually decided to return there. In 1954, they sailed on a passenger ferry to Genoa, Italy, and tried to enter West Germany from there. Schnaft, who had only $20 in his pocket, was denied entry due to his Israeli passport. At the time, Israeli passports were stamped with a "not valid for travel to Germany" notice, due to an Israeli boycott of that country. He then asked the German consul in Genoa for a visa and told him his story, but the consul refused to believe him and rejected his request. Afterwards, his girlfriend, who still had a German passport, entered Germany on her own. She returned to Israel to reunite with her husband, and they then moved to Germany together.

Having been denied entry to West Germany and with almost no money left, Schnaft decided to sell Israeli military secrets to Egypt, then a major enemy of Israel. He contacted the Egyptian consulate in Genoa, and offered to sell Israeli secrets in exchange for help in returning to Germany. The consul was impressed with his story, and then took him to Rome by train, where they met the military attaché at the Egyptian embassy. Following an interview, it was decided to fly him to Cairo for further questioning by intelligence experts.

Schnaft gave the Egyptians his Israeli passport, and received an Egyptian passport in the name of Robert Hayat. He was flown to Cairo, and lived there for a month. While there, he was interviewed by intelligence officers and gave them detailed descriptions of various IDF structures, such as army units, bases, armaments, training programs, and names of officers.

The Egyptians eventually asked him to return to Israel under an assumed identity, enlist in the IDF, and act as an agent for them, but he refused, telling them that all he wanted was to return to Germany. Eventually, they agreed, and arranged for him to fly to Rome on his Egyptian passport. He was given several hundred dollars as a reward for his services. From Rome, he took a train to Genoa, where he was given a laissez-passer by the Egyptian consulate, enabling him to enter Germany. He returned to Germany in March 1954.

Capture After his return to Germany, Schnaft moved to Frankfurt to live with his aunt, who was running a pharmacy. He tracked down his former lover in Israel, who was now living in Berlin with her husband, and went to her house hoping to win her back. He confessed to her his true origins and told her about his Nazi past, and also told her that he had been a spy for Egypt. The woman refused to leave her husband for him, and he then gave her his address in Frankfurt in case she changed her mind. The woman told her husband about his confession. The husband wrote to the Israeli security service Shin Bet and sent a photograph with the letter, which was received in October 1955. Senior commanders in the Israeli intelligence community reviewed the letter, and it was decided to bring Schnaft to Israel to put him on trial. They knew that Schnaft, as a junior officer in the IDF Artillery Corps, could have done only minimal damage, but they wanted to convey the image of an Israel capable of reaching anywhere, and to make an example of him.

It was initially proposed that an assassination squad be sent to kill Schnaft, but this was rejected. Instead, it was determined to bring him to trial. Shin Bet agents were then deployed to Frankfurt, where they found Schnaft. For the next few weeks, Shin Bet agents shadowed and clandestinely photographed Schnaft, and it was discovered that he had once again fallen into poverty. At this point, Mossad agents were deployed, and a plan was formulated to lure him back to Israel.

An agent, Shmuel Moriah, who was of Iraqi-Jewish origin, met Schnaft at a social gathering after a female Mossad operative posing as a journalist befriended Schnaft and introduced the two. Posing as an Iraqi citizen named Adnan Ben-Adnan, Moriah invited him to lunch in a Berlin restaurant the next day. Schnaft accepted. During their first meeting, Moriah deliberately dropped a forged Iraqi officer's identity card so Schnaft could pick it up and discern that he was an Iraqi officer. Over a series of meetings Schnaft told Moriah his story, including his SS service, Israeli military career, and meetings with Egyptian intelligence. Moriah then proposed he work as an Iraqi spy in Israel, promising generous pay in exchange for investigating reports of oil fields near Ashkelon. Schnaft agreed and returned to Israel in 1956 with a forged Israeli passport. He was arrested on arrival. He died on the 1st of November 2013, aged 90.